The study of carved and engraved gemstones is a fascinating one, and
it has endless possibilities for the jeweler who really wants to know
more about them. All gems have an ancient lineage, but the art of
carving gems originated long before the art of faceting them. In the
centuries before Christ, the only polished gems were those that had been
polished by being rubbed against pebbles in river beds and streams.
Excavations have revealed that the first carved gems were made about
4000 B.C. These were not the popular cameos and intaglios of today, but
the cylinders and seals that were used principally for affixing
"Signatures" to contracts and for messages and tokens of identity. We
are amazed at the delicacy of carving and the beauty of design. The
exquisitely carved designs of wind-swept trees are possibly the most
outstanding examples of this delicate art.

In Egypt and Crete almost the same designs were used. The bee was the
sign of royalty and the hands were the sign of the worker. There are
repeated representations of the saffron, the flower sign, suggesting the
importance of the dye industry in the ancient world, since dye was made
from the saffron. In fact, the story of early civilizations is told in
their carved and engraved gems and in their pottery, but the gems endure
while most of the pottery has been broken or entirely destroyed. These
early cylinders and seals are not worn today as jewelry, but are to be
found in the collections of the museums of the world.

It is the intaglio, cameo and
scarab that are of interest to the jeweler from the
standpoint of added sales. If a jeweler is interested in carved and
engraved gems, he can undoubtedly find excellent specimens and buy them
for comparatively little. Since cameos and intaglios are often made of
durable material, a significant percentage of those that have been made
throughout the last two or three thousand years are still in existence;
Many, of course, are in museums or private collections. Many beautiful
18th and 19th century cameos are still in circulation, often appearing
in old jewelry that has been turned in for its old gold value. Still
others are kept in boxes with trinkets that are considered more or less
worthless but that the owner does not wish to destroy.

There is a distinct possibility that if a sufficient number of retail
jewelers could be interested in accumulating a stock of these old carved
and engraved gems that the "craze" for collecting them could again be
revived. Several waves of popularity for them have occurred during
recent centuries, during which time the finer specimens have brought
exceptionally high prices. Gradually, however, the prices have receded
and they have found their way back into circulation, where they
frequently became available for a fraction of their actual worth.

A good many cameos are still made, of course, particularly for
mounting in men's rings. The majority of these are of very inferior
workmanship, though occasionally a finely worked specimen is turned out.

Though the intaglio was developed first and has had, through the
centuries, more years of popularity than the cameo, the cameo is
generally favored today over the intaglio. The intaglio, in harder
stones, makes an ideal ring stone for a man. It should be remembered
that persons with little or no appreciation of diamonds and other gems
can often be interested in exquisitely worked cameos and intaglios; not
only are they miniature works of art, but they have the added advantage
of being of a size that permits them to be worn as articles of personal
adornment.

Definitions

Although the term engraving is frequently used
loosely to include the art of carving as well, modern
practice tends to consider each form of craftsmanship as a separate and
distinct classification. This division may be clarified by the following
definitions.

Engraving

That branch of the lapidary art confined to comparatively small
gems upon which are incised various types of figures or designs and
that are generally mounted and used for articles of personal
adornment (cameos, intaglios, etc.).

Carving

That branch of the lapidary art devoted to the working of gem
materials into articles of ornament and utility (vases, statues,
etc.)

Therefore, it becomes evident that the principle difference between
the two art forms lies in the nature and size of the article and the use
for which it is intended.

These are not unvarying definitions, however, since certain small
objects more characteristic of engraved gems and such jewelry pieces
as carved pendants fall into the category of carving. In addition, a
carved article may bear an engraved inscription and thus be
representative of both types of work. In other words, a certain
amount of "overlapping" is to be expected. But, in general, the
definitions hold true and serve effectively as a means of
classification.

In the more than six thousand years that gem
materials have been carved or engraved they have been made for one
of three main reasons; often they have combined all three.

As an Ornament

From prehistoric times, the rare beauty of
cut-and-polished gems has been desirable. Rings, earrings, necklaces
and decorative inlays in furniture and utensils are only some of the
uses to which engraved gems have been put. Even portraiture is
found in this art medium. Goblets and vases were also carved.

As Seals or Signets

Throughout historic times, there have been
long periods when the skill of writing was the rare accomplishment
of only a few. Hard, durable stones engraved with a name or an
adopted symbol were used to authenticate letters or documents
written by professional scribes, much as the signature is used in
modern times. Seals were used to insure property before the advent
of the lock. Jars, boxes and even house doors were taped with
string, and the knot was covered with clay or wax into which the
private seal was impressed. Tampering would be proven by the broken
seal.

As an Amulet or Charm

The mystic spell of the graven image, the sacred
or magic word or name of a god, and the esoteric, curative or
protective power of certain stones once molded men's thoughts and is
still held by many today. Among the Gnostics of the 1st century A.D.
the carved gem was not only used to spread their elaborate secret
dogma, but it also served as a membership identification, much as a
lodge pin is used today.

Although crude line drawings are found scratched on prehistoric
stones, the earliest true artistic engraving probably originated in
South Mesopotamia, in the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. From
here it may have spread westward to the Nile Valley, or it may have
here been an independent discovery. At any rate, a high degree of
skill and artistic craftsmanship was found in Sumer, a territorial
division of Babylonia (modern Iraq), as early as 4000 B.C.
Cylinder-type seals for leaving impressions in clay writing tablets
were the chief articles fabricated by the gem cutter. The idea of
using durable stones may have originated from the tribal totem
markings cut into the shafts of arrows and pressed into clay or
register ownership. Successive civilizations that rose and fell in
this area used stone cylinders as a personal seal. The people of
Babylon, Syria, Assyria and Persia all cut their characteristic
seals in gemstones as they passed in the pages of history for over
three thousand years.

In the Nile Valley the cylinder was supplanted by the scarab
seal. That they did not write on tablets of clay was only one
reason; the more important cause was the rise of the symbolism of
the sacred beetle, about 2500 B.C. The god Khepera, the creator, had
for his symbol the beetle, called in the Egyptian language "Kheper."
Our word scarab is from the Greek; it was the Greeks who first told
of it before we could read the heiroglyphics. It caught the popular
imagination and deep esoteric significance was given it, much the
same as the symbol of the cross was to the Christian era. It was
cherished as a powerful amulet, and it was so sacred that for a
period of about two thousand years every person of the population of
seven million Egyptians had one or more of these gems. It is no
wonder that they are the most numerous of the ancient engraved gems
available to collectors today.

Another civilization in the Mediterranean islands flourished
between 3000 and 900 B.C. Their colonists reached out to the
mainland of Greece, founding such great cities as Mycenae and
Tiryns, and onto the isles of the Aegean. They, too, developed the
art of gem cutting, following the methods learned from Mesopotamian
and Egyptian traders. But their art was free of the creeds that
hampered their teachers. They expressed the joy of life. They were
to influence the art history of the Greeks who, as rude
Aryan-speaking barbarians, were then moving south in a great
migration from the Danube into the Peninsula of Greece.

Waves of Achaean, Dorian and Ionian tribes overran the lands of
these cultured Mycenaean's and, by 1300 B.C., even the island of
Crete, with its ancient Minoan arts. Then began the "Dark Ages" of
Greece, while the new masters learned from the old.

The most intelligent of these Hellenic barbarians, the Ionians,
did not let the last spark of Aegean culture go out, but slowly
developed it with their own fresh vigor, influenced by their Eastern
neighbors in Asia Minor. By the 8th century B.C. , the Ionians of
Melos developed an archaic but promising style of art, including
gems cutting.

In the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. , the demand for gem seals grew
as commerce developed. Solon's laws prohibited an artist keeping a
copy of a seal under the penalty of death, lest it fall into the
hands of another. The scarab from was retained, the only bond of the
artist to the past. It was decorative and not of religious
significance, other than the good luck claimed for it by the
Phoenicians, who sold them the idea. Soon the scarab back was
omitted, the shape as a scaraboid alone being retained. Often cameo
like satyr heads replaced the beetle form as backs of gems.
Phoenician, Carthaginian and Greek traders carried the scarab form
to all parts of the Mediterranean, including Italy and the
Etruscans, but the style and subjects engraved could never be
confused with the Egyptian prototype.

Between 480 and 350 B.C., the finest finished type of Greek gem
cutting was accomplished. By 400 B.C., the Etruscan and Italic
Greeks had developed lapidary styles of their own. Although the
scarab form was retained, the subject matter was Greek mythology.

The Attic school led in Greece. A Hellenistic style quite
different grew in the west from 300 to 100 B.C. This was replaced by
the growing Roman domination. Characteristic gems of this period
usually were cut by the Greeks, but they were influenced by the
vigor of the new Roman Republic and then the Empire. This art was
followed by a decline as the later Empire gave way to gaudy show and
cheap ostentation. By the time of Commodus, the spirit of
originality was declining. One can read the history of Rome in her
cut gems.

In the East, the Mithric gems of Pertia and the Gnostic stones of
Alexandria became the only field of any originality. Christian gems
grew into the stiff formality of the Byzantine stones.

The late Persian empire of the Sassarians developed a glyptic art
of some value between the 3rd and 7th centuries A.D. , but when the
empire was conquered by Islam, that too passed. The Mohammedan
signets were to contain only beautifully engraved prayers and
quotations, for they were forbidden the graven image.

Seals through the Middle Ages in Europe were few, mostly ancient
gems whose symbols and figures were misunderstood. The art of gem
cutting did not wholly die, for when the renaissance dawned the art
sprang into bloom. Ancient subjects were taken and treated with
Gothic stiffness at first; this later developed into violent action
in the subject matter. They were too full of their own times to try
to copy the past.

By the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a definite tendency to
copy the ancient gems. The 18th century cutters lost all desire for
originality, and the unsigned gems are distinguished from the
ancient works only with great difficulty. Many signed their names in
Greek or Roman lettering or, worse, signed names of ancient artists.
Gem collecting became a mania with the idle rich of the 18th
centuries. This led to forgeries and clever imitations that even
today plague the collectors of of ancient works of the gem cutters
of antiquity. In 1840, Count Poniotowski, a Polish nobleman, hired
Italian gem engraver to make fine reproductions of ancient cameos
and intaglios in natural stones.

We are today in another period during which there is
comparatively little demand for stone carving and engraving. Most
jewelry cameos are made of shell, primarily by mass-production
methods, and they lack mar of the desirable and more artistic
qualities of handwork. The most prize cameos today are not those of
percent manufacture, but those that were made during the earlier
centuries when the art was in greater demand; however, a few fine
examples are still engraved in stone. Most of the highly
accomplished artisans of recent times have been Italians.

As would be expected, the earliest expressions of the art of gem
engraving were on the softer stones. This is also to be found in
periods of decadence and during the transition of new cultures
feeling their way in the new art.

At a very early period in both Egypt and Mesopotamia, gem cutters
began working stones of a hardness of between 5 and B. This was
possible because other crystalline-alumina abrasives were early
discovered by some unsung genius over six thousand years ago.

Greek and Roman literature, even with such students as
Theophrastus and Pliny, do not help us much in listing all the
stones used by the ancients. Until comparatively recently, color and
rough estimates of hardness were the guides to mineralogy. Wholly
unrelated stones were lumped together by this method. But the great
number of ancient cut gems in the collections of today give us a
fair idea of the materials preferred at various times and places.
The craftsman followed public demand, which for period and locality,
was often definite enough to date the gem cutting.

There is conclusive evidence of extensive commerce in gemstones,
even in prehistoric times. Minerals from deposits of distant points
appear in early cut gems far from their source.

Minerals and Other Natural Substances.

The ancient world was familiar with most of the
gem materials to day. Chalcedonies, as now, were the most
universally used of all gemstones for engraving. In Egypt, scarabs
of amethyst dominated the 12th dynasty; green feldspar, green basalt
and jasper the 13th; carnelian and glass the 18th; red and green
jasper and rock crystal the 19th; and lapis the 20th dynasty. In
Mesopotamian area, cylinder seals before the 2nd millennium B.C.
were made of softer serpentine and marble. In the early part of the
2nd millennium, hematite prevailed; later, jaspers and other
chalcedonies were favored. The Assyrians preferred rock crystal,
agate and carnelian after the 14th century B.C. With the Greeks, the
cryptocrystalline quartz varieties sard, plasma, jasper and agate
were favored; of the crystalline varieties, rock crystal and
amethyst were favorites. They also occasionally used the harder
stones like garnet and beryl. The Romano-Italic lapidaries preferred
sard, plasma, jasper, amethyst, garnet, aquamarine, topaz,
lapis-lazuli and sardonyx for cameos.

Emerald, ruby, sapphire and diamond have never
been used extensively for gem carving and engraving. Emerald
probably lacked favor because it is quite hard to work and tends to
break rather too easily, perhaps after a considerable amount of work
had been done on it. Ruby, sapphire and diamond were still less
frequently used in earlier days because of their great hardness,
which made it almost impossible to work them. A few intaglios in
these materials have been handed down. In more recent times, the use
of the diamond drill has made it possible to work ruby and sapphire
with greater ease, but the diamond still cuts very slowly and is not
regarded as a satisfactory medium for such work.

The size of cameos is not limited for use in
jewelry. Larger cameos have bee fashioned for art objects or
commemoration pieces. A notable example known as the "Apotheosis of
Germanicus," now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, measures 30
x 26 centimeters.

Cameos carved from pink conch shells or from
shells of the various pearl-bearing molluscs and other marine
shellfish have been used for centuries. Some of those made during
the nineteenth century are among the finest cameo work known. In
some cases, the entire shell of a mollusc (though not of a conch)
has been carved out as a single figure or with a number of figures.
Both sides of the shell have sometimes been used for the face of the
cameo, although the white lining usually is used for the top layer
and the darker outside coating serves as a background for the
figures carved in relief.

Cameos carved from the pin conch shell are almost
invariably a solid color, since this shell rarely shows any color
variations; hence, they are sometimes mistaken for pink coral
cameos. Most shell cameos are fashioned from a mollusc shell that
has a pink or brown lining. Almost all pink shell cameos fade to
white or very light pink. Some fade much more rapidly than others,
probably having been artificially dyed to restore their pink color.
Therefore, the shell cameos with a brown background are, as a rule,
much more desirable, although they also show some tendency to fade.
Obviously, shell cameos are less desirable and expensive than those
made of stone, since they are easier to work and break more easily.

Other materials that have been carved and engraved
from time to time include ivory, amber, and even ostrich and emu
eggs. Amber, because its softness makes it easy to work, has been
carved by many early civilizations. The shells, of ostrich and emu
eggs are commonly seen as whole specimens cut in low relief. Even
rocks such as lava and basalt have occasionally been used. Coral
cameos have enjoyed intermittent popularity; they are seen
infrequently in the trade today.

The majority of stone cameos are fashioned from
chalcedonies. In most of those used in jewelry, the raised portion
is white and the background black, brown or light red of low
intensity.

Those with reddish-brown background are properly
known as SARDONYX CAMEOS. Those with a more intense reddish
background and a figure of some other color, usually gray or black
are also frequently seen and are properly known as carnelian cameos.
Those made from onyx of three or more differently colored layers are
not uncommon, usually depicting two or more figures or heads, each
being fashioned from a different layer. Onyx, of course, is the most
frequently employed gem mineral, because its different colored
layers are parallel and of approximately even widths. However,
agate of different colored layers (which are of uneven widths) is
also employed, requiring more skill on the part of the carver but
rarely producing as pleasing results. Green and white cameos almost
always consist of a white figure on a green dyed background.

Substitutes

Glass paste colored with metallic oxides were used
by Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek and Roman gem cutters. No lead oxide,
which is used in modern pastes to increase brilliancy (but reduces
hardness), was employed. In un faceted stones, color was the most
important consideration. For luminous texture, color and hardness,
the ancient glass was superior to the modern paste. Ancient pastes
are cut with facets and sold in Italy today as seal gems. The minute
air bubbles in ancient glass give it a more luminous quality than
the modern product. Generally speaking, the ancient pastes were
really superior to the ancient gems in richness and beauty of color.
The Roman paste makers even made clever fusions of laminated glass
to imitate sardonyx for cameo cutters.

At other times, the
molding of glass and ceramics (earthenware, porcelain, Cc.) was
done not a substitute but with a candid desire to produce a
beautiful job. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Josiah
Wedgwood, an Englishman, manufactured cameos from pottery. He used
his blue, green, pink, yellow or black "Jasperware" as a background
for white molded pottery figures in relief. Some of these were
excellent reproduction of ancient cameos and they were widely distributed. These same cameos are still being made by the English
firm that Josiah Wedgwood founded and are sometimes seen in gift
shops and jewelry stores in North America. Known as Wedgwood cameos,
the most usual variety is a white figure on a blue background.

Many very crude cameo imitations have been molded from other
substances. Formerly, wax was used; more recently, plastics of
various kinds. Most of these are easily detected at a distance,
because of their high or waxy luster and the lack of sharp outlines
of their figures.

Assembled Cameos

These are not carved from one piece but consist of
two or more cemented layers of genuine materials or a combination of
genuine and limitation materials. Contrary to general belief, they
are not frequently seen; they are probably produced in order to
salvage the remaining worth wile layers of cameos that have been
broken accidentally.

(NOTE: It is generally customary in the trade today to
distinguish between carved and engraved gems by the use of such
terms as STONE CAMEO, SHELL CAMEO, CORAL CAMEO, etc., depending on
the materials from which they are fashioned. A stone cameo, for
example, refers to one made from any naturally occurring mineral or
rock. In addition, the ethical jeweler or gem dealer is careful to
apply the term IMITATION to all engraved materials composed of wax,
glass, plastic, etc., and the term SYNTHETIC to all those fashioned
from synthetic materials.)

Early Methods

The earliest lapidary tool was any sharp, hard
stone such as quartz, corundum or, later, white sapphire and
diamond. The principle most frequently employed was to use an
abrasive paste of emery or corundum dust in oil or water and copper
or even wood to abrade the stone. Pliny states that most of this
abrasive came from the Isle of Naxos. Hill tribes of India still use
bamboo points to drill hand rotated drills and bow driven points of
soft metal, such as copper impregnated with the abrasive, were used
even in prehistoric times. By 4000 B.C., the gem-cutter's equipment
closely resembled the tools of today. The bow drill soon began to be
used not only with point drills but with tubes and wheels of various
sizes as well. Later, a bow driven lathe was developed. Still later,
a sapphire or diamond silver was mounted in an iron or bronze handle
and used as a fine-lime finisher and graver. The ophrastus and Pliny
give accounts of methods that were surprisingly modern. Careful
study by archaeologists of the many gems found in various stages of
completion give a clear picture of the steps used in fashioning.
Rough shaping was done with copper wire and emery paste, Whetstones
of black Lydia). jasper and particles of emery melted in resin were
used to smooth the surfaces. Blocking out was done with drills and
tubes of various sizes. The rotula, or wheel of bronze, was often
used, frequently, the roughing-out operation was the work of an
apprentice or assistant, the master artist taking over with the
graving point where skill, personality and experience were required.
Polishing was done as today, with metallic oxides and soft wood or,
for flat surfaces, with a cloth dusted with ochreous earth or
hematite. Glass cameo work in two colors was done by dipping
cobalt-blue glass into molten white glass; a thin, white coating was
thus fused on. This was worked away to form the figures, leaving a
blue background.

Present-Day Methods

Engraving

Today the power lathe is the most important tool
for engraving gems. It consists of a fixed motor, the shaft of which
hold a small chuck, or collect. The drills and cutters used for
carving are mounted in the collect. The most recently introduced
cutters are made from sintered metal impregnated with diamond dust.
Previously, steel tips were used and they were charged by applying
olive oil and diamond powder. The various shapes made include the
ballpoint, wheel, oval, conical, sharp edge and cylindrical. The
material to be worked is held either in the hand or cemented to a
short dop stick and the engraving accomplished by manipulating the
stone against the rapidly revolving cutter. In order to insure
accuracy in the finished product, it is usually customary to sketch
the outline of the proposed design or figure on the surface of the
gem with a diamond stylus or other suitable instrument. Work done by
a drill, in contrast to a cutter, is characterized by rounded
grooves or lines and especially by holes where the drill has been
stopped momentarily.

Infrequently, certain materials, especially softer
substance such as shell, are engraved by hand with the use of steel
gravers or wood-cutting tools. The method is, of course, much slower
than the drill or cutter. Even in ancient days, when time was not
practical on harder stones.

Carving

Because of the wide variety of sizes and shapes
produced in carved stones, a combination of the techniques of both
cabochon cutting and engraving is frequently employed.

On a large vase, for example, the artisan would
find it necessary to use large electrically-driven laps and diamond
saws for the initial work, followed by a more careful use of small
drills and other engraving tools for the application of tedious
designs and other delicate handwork. Otherwise, the cabochon method
of utilizing various grain size of abrasive powders and polishing
agents on different types of laps is generally followed.

A seemingly endless variety of objects have been,
and are, produced by carving, some of the more frequently
encountered being vases, bowls, and perfume bottles, status, and
numerous figures of birds, animals and other wildlife. Such carvings
may range in size from a carat or less to many pounds, and be very
simple or extremely complicated in design, jadeite and nephrite are
probably the favorite gem materials for carving, particularly with
the Chinese. Rose quartz, rock crystal, amethyst and lapis-lazuli
are also popular.

Scarab

Because of its long, continuous and widespread
usage, the scarab must be considered first. Originating in Egypt
about 2000 B.C.as a popular inscribed amulet-seal of deep religious
significance, it spread to Syria and Phoenicia and thence by the
trade routes to the Greeks and Etruscans as the basic gem form
until about the 4th century B.C. Its mastic import was only a
minor consideration outside of Egypt. In the 6th century B.C., it
strangely disappeared from popular usage in the land of its origin;
the reason is unknown.

As stated before, the scarab was a carved
or molded representation of a common beetle of the genus Atenchus.
So exact were most of the carvings that biologists clearly identify
the four species venerated by the Egyptian fabricators, since living
creatures were their models. On the broad oval base was engraved
the symbols, names or figures for the impression. Since a words and
symbols had deep magical significance in the complicated beliefs of
the people, any object so sealed was protected. To unlwafully
violate such a sealing would bring eternal damnation on the immortal
soul of the culprit. A common inscription was the name of the
pharaoh, who was considered a god. It might have been the ruling kind
or one long dead but still venerated. Some had a symbol or written
name of one of the deities in their numerous pantheon. Many bore the
full name, titles, occupation or residence of the owner of the seal,
male or female. Some merely had symbolic decorative motifs. Some
larger ones had quotations from the "book of the dead" and were for
placement in the mummy. One king used scarabs for promulgating
edicts. An interesting, human interest type of inscription is found
in the so-called "wish scarab" with such inscriptions as "May the
name be established, mayest thou have a son", "May Amen protect
thee and give thee strength" and "May Isis give thee a happy New
Year".

Styles of fabrication dominated certain periods,
and so it is possible to date most scarabs with a fair degree of
accuracy. They were drilled with a hole for stringing on a cord or
for a swivel in ring mountings.

Other Egyptian Forms as Seals

Button Seal

This form, which was probably introduced from the
Aegean islands about 2400 B.C was a circular signet with a
suspension ring above that was used as a stamp for sealing. It was
largely replaced by the Scarab.

Plaque Seal

A flattened oblong gem, the plaque was drilled through
the long axis and was without amuletic significance, except for the
nature of the inscription. It was popular from about 1500 B.C to Roman
times. Both surfaces were engraved and it could be used either as a seal
or as an ornament. Early cameos in low relief first appeared on the
plaque.

Cowroid Seal

The cowroid, which was popular in the Hyksos period,
was shaped like a cowery shell; i.e. an oval, high-backed cabochon.

Scaraboid Seal

The tops of scaraboids were cameo like Negro heads
or animal forms, instead of resembling beetles. They were found in
the Middle Kingdom. The base inscriptions were similar to those of
the scarab seals.

Cylinder Seal

This form was perhaps the first gemstone to be
engraved; it was developed in southern Mesopotamia, where clay tablets
were the chief writing medium. It first appeared around Urunk about 3300
B.C. and ran as a continuous series through the rise and fall of nations
until about the 4th century B.C. Some ten thousand are new in
collections throughout the world. In the three thousand years of the
cylinders, they were universally used by the Babylonians, Assyrians,
Hittites, Syrians and Persians. They spread to Egypt but lasted only a
short time, since the dwellers of the Nile Valley wrote chiefly on a
form of paper called papyrus.

All stones known to the ancient world used, but the
preferences were hematite, jasper, chalcedony, quartz and lapis-lazuli.
There were many sizes, but that most favored was from one-half to two
inches in length. A hole was always drilled in the long axis through
which a cord was passed; this permitted the seal to be worn around the
neck or wrist or hung from the belt.

The inscribed subjects usually seen were figures of
the deities or their symbols, legendary heroes or natural activities.
Because of the greater surface presented by the cylinder seal, the
inscriptions frequently depicted entire scenes from well-known legendary
tales, which was not possible on the limited base of the scarab. The
inscriptions were in cuneiform characters and gave the names of deities
especially favored by the owner, the name and titles of the possessor,
or prayers. The figures were vital, realistic and more animated than the
conventionalized, restrained figures of the Egyptian artists.

Cone Seal

Popular in Assyria, Persia and some of the island
cultures, the figure or design of the cone seal was engraved in the
broad end or base, with or without a suspension hole at the upper end.
It resembled the cylindrical subject matter but with a more limited
surface to engrave. Later, the cone was elongated into a handle, often
with a long stem of stone, by the Hittite seal makers. Some were only
hemispheres.

Gem Forms of the Western World

The core, or stamp, type of seal with variations of
hemispheres and heavy ring like stones were adopted by the island
cultures of Crete, Cyprus and their mainland colonies. The ring types
would not fit the fingers but were strung on a cord or thong. The
earlier stones of the Mediterranean and Aegean islands were pebble like
and roughly lenticular in shape; others, which were more oblong, were
described as glandular, because they resembled the "glandes" or sling
bullet.

The subjects engraved on these early Western seals
were chiefly animals, often grouped in heraldic attitudes. They were
archaic but realistic and virile, showing Eastern influences and the
freedom that characterized the Greek art yet to be. These date from 3000
to 1300 B.C. They were commonly made of soft stones, but rock crystal,
carnelian and chalcedony were masterfully handled with the drill and
wheel, probably introduced from the East.

After the fall of the Aegean cultures in the 12th
century B.C., the long Dark Ages of Greece emerged with Ionian gem
cutters of the Isle of Melos influenced by their Oriental neighbors but
showing the characteristic free style of the conquered Aegean sea
people. Only the scarab form was followed, but this also passed into the
scaraboid, whose back showed only the cabochon of the scarab. As the
demand for ringstone seals increased in the 6th century B.C., this
humpback was planed off and the unper forated flat ringstone, to be
mounted in a frame of metal or to form the bezel of a ring or pendant,
developed. The full effort was now given to the engraved intaglio. The
scarab lingered in the western lands of Italy a few centuries longer.
The rising Roman influence soon demanded the gem form as we know it
today, and the scarab-shaped seal passed from popularity.

Intaglio

Both the cylinder and the ancient scarab had intaglio
figures engraved on them. The intaglio figure is depressed below the
surface of the stone, commonly in such a manner that an impression made
with the stone yields an image in relief. some intaglio cutting outlined
the borders of a figure with depressed lines, thus leaving the figure
itself approximately at the level of the edges of the stone.

Cameo

The cameo is commonly a gem carved from two
differently colored layers, especially onyx, the upper layer being used
for the figure and the lower layer serving as the background. The cameo
is actually a miniature bas-relief sculpture and, unlike the intaglio,
will not yield an impression in relief.

For the most part, ancient gems were used for seals,
whose sunken intaglio engravings gave a beautiful relief impression in
the wax. This beauty of the impression was captured in the cameo cut for
ornamentation, started by the Greeks about the 6th century B.C. It first
became popular in the Hellenistic period of the 3rd century B.C.
Sardonyx, in which the layers could be made to give a polychrome effect,
and glass pastes were the favorite materials. The cameo became popular
for portraiture in Rome. Some of these Roman cameos, as large as ten to
twelve inches square, are to be found in the fine collections of today.
They reflect the later Imperial taste for the elaborate and showy,
rather than the finer skill in art spirit. The cameo craze died out in
Rome in the 2nd century A.D.

The Renaissance and later gem cutters revived the
cameo as a favored form, largely in imitations of classic styles. Shell
cameos with strata of two-color variations became popular in the 18th
and 19th centuries. The molded cameos of Wedgwood in the 18th century
continue to have a gradually decreasing demand and hardly come under the
heading of gem cutting.

Miscellaneous Forms

In more recent times, a considerable variety of carved
and engraved gems have been used. The chevee (she-VAY)
is a term correctly applied to a flat-topped gem with a smooth, concave
depression in the center. If the depression contains a raised figure it
is then properly known as a cuvette (koo-VET); it may
be considered as a combination of the intaglio and cameo forms, since
the figure itself is in relief but is even with or below the edges of
the stone. Both terms are often used interchangeably in the trade.

Coinage

The last form to list is seldom thought of as being in
the field of the gem-cutter's art, although for about 2600 years it has
been one of his most universal expressions. For this service the
greatest gem cutters of ancient or modern times were flattered to be
called upon by the state. The only difference from their usual projects
was in the medium on which they cut their seal intaglio. In this case it
was iron and the purpose was coinage. In the 7th century B.C., the
governments found that the ingots and pellets of gold and silver that
had been used for centuries for commercial exchange were often
underweight or deceptively alloyed with baser metals. This was regulated
by issuing all metal for barter only after carefully testing and
weighing it and setting their royal stamp of approval on the pellet,
thus forming the first true coin. Such an object was nothing but a metal
seal of the state. That the dies were the work of a gem cutter, usually
the best in the realm, is evident in the magnificent medallions of
ancient Syracuse and the portraitures of the early rulers of the Roman
Empire-all gem seals in the finest tradition of the art.

Since the work of earlier periods is more esteemed
than that of the present time, a definite knowledge of the age of a
cameo or intaglio is helpful in judging its value. However, since they
usually are made of gem materials, they are practically indestructible
and thus seldom indicate their age by the amount of wear they show. The
mounting sometimes furnishes a clue to the age of a specimen, but since
fine old cameos and intaglios are often remounted, the fact that a gem
is in a nineteenth-century mounting is no definite proof that it was not
cut even in Roman times.

The Design of a carved gem is a
criterion of its value. At all periods when stone carving was highly
developed, design was basically sound and harmonious. However, in the
earlier periods, particularly during Greek and Roman times, there was a
tendency to crowd the design somewhat on the stone; but the examples
from these periods, despite the crowding, are basically of good design.

Craftsmanship also is a reliable
guide, particularly on harder gems. Poorly cut gems show poor
workmanship, especially in such details as the eyes, nose and mouth of a
portrait head, the careful working out of leaves, etc. Finely cut cameos
and intaglios will bear close inspection even under magnification.
Poorer workmanship shows itself in faulty modeling of objects that are
visible even to the unaided eye.

There are both antique and modem engraved and carved
gems that are valuable works of art. Both have a definite place.
Unfortunately, however, there is no sure method of recognizing the true
antique from the modern forgery cut by an expert. It is the same with
counterfeit money. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gem collecting
was in the hands of wealthy collectors and the incentive to the forger
was great. With the exposure of the Poniatowski scandal, mentioned
previously, cabinets of gems passed to a more critical group of
archaeologists and students of the art of the past.

The student can prepare himself by becoming familiar
with the fine collections in such institutions as the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts, the metropolitan Museum or the various European museums,
either by direct study or through the excellent reproductions in the
catalogs of those institutions. Hard but pleasant hours of study alone
will provide the deep knowledge that is necessary to recognize the
spirit and styles of the past.

The average counterfeit will be obvious to one who is
familiar with ancient costumes, hairdress, symbols, etc., which are so
frequently violated by the less-informed forgers. There is no patina
acquired by ancient gems, other than the dulling of the internal polish
in the deep cuts; even this, however, can be duplicated by air blasts of
fine emery. Surface scratches can be duplicated by forcing the gem into
a turkey's craw for several days! Iron filings in acid can give white
onyx the glossiness of age. But the style and spirit of the ancients,
which is felt by an intimate familiarity of genuine antiques, is missed
by most forgers, even when stones are pieced in ancient mountings. Many
fine antique gems are re-polished for modern owners.

Ancient seals were thicker than modern intaglios. The
cameos were large because the artisans could not work effectively in the
small spaces now made possible by modern power tools. The ancients hated
angles in the shape of a cameo. The face was usually convex, with
irregularities on the back. The harder precious stones were seldom used.
Slight depressions on the back of antique stones are seldom imitated.
Uniformity of shape, either oval or round, was rare in classic periods.
Uniform scratches are suspicious. The ancients cut a limited number of
figures, except in the cylinders. They sunk the design deeply. They
favored statue like poses, usually in repose, without the dramatic
action that modem cutters crave to put into their compositions. It was
more difficult to copy than to express themselves. The symbols of the
gods and the portraits of the deities were uniform in the work of the
ancient. The forger tends to dramatize, much as the theatrical producer
often scorns the true Oriental music, dance or costume to fit what he
thinks the public expects. Be careful of signed gems; they were few and
the name is usually hidden. No one wished another's name on his personal
seal. A man who worked during the last century in Europe, Marchand by
name, did sign his name to the meticulous agate and onyx tablets he
carved. His work is admired by collectors today and imitations of it
have been seen, one of which deserves particular mention. A bracelet
with six intaglio-cut stones signed with his name were found to be
doublets consisting of glass tops and translucent chalcedony backs.
Evidently the forger made an impression of actual Marchand pieces in
clay, fired the clay, and made another impression (in order again to
have the positive impression) in glass.

There are millions of modem scarabs made for the
Egyptian trade. To the expert they present but a slight problem. The
spirit of Egyptian art is usually missing, and the glaze is too uniform
in color. Ancient glazes fade and change color on the surface, and the
original color clings to the deeper carvings.

The autobiography of Pistrucci, one of the last of the
great modem gem cutters, will warn the student how the fraudulent Roman
dealers fooled the public. If you read German, the most scientific
expert, Furtwangler, in his "Antike Gemmen" can lead the reader in the
art or recognizing ancient engraved stones. The more you know of the
past its art, history, beliefs and spirit the less chance will the
expert, willful forger have to deceive the student.

Lastly, do not pay high prices. There are far too many
fine genuine antique gems, scarabs and cylinders to have them classed as
extremely rare. High prices only encourage forgers, for the work on fine
copy is far too great when originals are not as valuable as most people
think.

Although the appreciation of carved gemstones has
declined in recent years, here and there in the world the art is being
kept alive by dedicated workers. The demand for engraved coats-of-arms
formerly kept many engravers busy, but today very few lapidaries
specialize in this field.

In both Japan and Germany, since World War II, there
has been a small revival of carved stones for use in jewelry. The
materials used are nephrite (for leaves), amethyst, tourmaline, rose
quartz, etc. (for flowers and fruits). The carvings, although nicely
representational, are commercial in their execution. Carved jadeite fish
have been imported in considerable numbers from Hong Kong. The use of
multistone scarab in jewelry of all descriptions became widespread in
the mid 1950's. Again, the feeling of the carving is commercial, but the
similarity to ancient representations of this beetle is good.